National Honor Society Essay, Research Paper
The standards for entrance into the National Honor
Society are scholarship, leadership, character, and service. Through this
paper I will strive to prove that I possess all of these qualities, and
moreover, that I am qualified for entrance into an organization as prestigious
as the National Honor Society. Over the past four years as a scholar, I
believe that I have demonstrated all of these characteristics. That I have
the scholarly ability required to be a NHS member is indicated simply by
the fact that I was nominated for entrance into the NHS in the first place,
though since I get the impression that more than this is required, I will
point out that I have consistently made the honor roll every quarter during
my years in both High- and Middle-school. Also, my involvement in the school’s
“Jets TEAMS” (Test of Engineering Aptitude, Mathematics, and
Science) team during my Junior year functions as an indicator of my scholarship.
Jets TEAMS is an intense, annual competition in which schools send 8 of
their strongest students to compete against other schools in a nationwide
contest. During my Junior year I was fortunate enough to be selected as
one of the eight students (only 3 of whom were Juniors) who would go to
the competition, and through our team’s efforts, we were able to come
in first in the state of Connecticut, earning recognition not just for ourselves,
but for the town of Granby as well. Through my involvement in Jets TEAMS
and my solid academic record, I feel that I have demonstrated the scholarship
required for entrance into the National Honor Society. It is difficult to
narrow things down to a single situation in which I have demonstrated leadership
qualities to the extent that is required for entrance into the NHS, but
for the purposes of this paper (and the sake of brevity), I will focus on
my past involvement in the “People to People: Student Ambassador Program.”
People to People is a nationally recognized organization which sends groups
of American students to foreign countries where they can learn about another
culture by experiencing it firsthand. Their itinerary also stresses the
development of leadership skills and the importance of teamwork. Through
my involvement in this program, aside from learning a lot about a foreign
culture (I traveled to Australia for 3 weeks), I also learned a great deal
about the responsibilities and obligations that go along with being a leader.
Shortly after the start of the trip, I was nominated to be one of three
“Student Delegation Leaders.” As a delegation leader it was
my job to help organize group activities and meetings, as well as to find
and help resolve any conflicts between individual delegation members. Through
my time spent as a delegation leader, I learned a lot about the compromise,
fairness, and responsibility that are required if one is be a “good”
leader of others. I often found myself having to sacrifice my own free time
and personal desires for the benefit of the group. This, I believe, is the
most important part of being a leader, the ability to sacrifice some of
the things you want for the overall gain of the people that you are leading.
I have also learned a lot about the role a leader must play in group/team
dynamics through my involvement in the Granby Tennis Team. I won’t
elaborate on this point, however, as this paragraph is already becoming
monstrous in scope. Service is the quality of NHS members which I have the
hardest time finding
service in the “traditional” sense. I have, however, acted as
web-master of a fairly popular website of my own creation in the past, and
many parallels can be drawn between this and community service. The website
that I had (during my Junior year) was entitled “Definitive MP3,”
and it contained general as well as in depth technical information on Digital
Audio (MP3), related software programs which visitors could download, and
a section where people could find technical support for the software programs.
I myself would be online for several hours each day to personally answer
and address specific questions and concerns that my visitors had regarding
Digital Audio, the software programs, or life in general. Maintaining and
operating the website and its HTML code also took a couple hours of my daily
time as well, and all this was done for no compensation whatsoever. I did
not profit or benefit from my website in any way other than the sense of
personal satisfaction that I got from helping others and from their frequent
praise of the site. This can be likened to community service because I gave
up a good deal of my time and effort for no reason other than the benefit
and enjoyment of other people. The only real difference that exists is that
rather than benefiting the immediate community of Granby, I benefited a
larger (the site reached close to 30,000 hits over its 9 month life-span),
more dispersed community through the Internet. I think, however, that what
is more important than what the actual community service is, is what the
participant takes away from it. From the days, weeks, and months that I
spent maintaining my website and personally helping others, I realized that
I really do enjoy helping other people, as well as giving up a portion of
my free time simply for the benefit of others. I think that this is why
service is such an important part of becoming a NHS member, because without
it, one would not know that there is a reward to be found in selflessly
helping others, the reward of personal satisfaction, of knowing that you
did something good for no purpose other than the sake of doing something
good. By this point in my paper, I would think that I have already demonstrated
that I possess sufficient character to become a member of the National Honor
Society (and I would also like to thank the reader for having the tenacity
to make it this far). My involvement with People to People has taught me
such traits as personal responsibility and integrity, through Jets TEAMS
and my participation on the Granby Tennis Team I have learned about the
importance of teamwork and group dynamics, and by being a web-master for
a completely non-profit website, I have learned how to be self-sacrificing,
and about how rewarding this can be. I would hope that all these instances
have already been elaborated upon completely enough in the previous paragraphs
that I do not need to do so again. If this is not the case then maybe I
really do not have what it takes to become a member of the NHS. I believe
that by now I have demonstrated that I posses the qualities of scholarship,
leadership, character, and service. I also feel that if I am fortunate enough
to earn inclusion in the NHS, that I would do nothing detract from the prestige
and respectability that is associated with the National Honor Society. But
ultimately that is a choice which is left up to you, the reader. Now that
I have had my say, it is time for you to have yours.